Titans Suffer Letdown in Houston in 13-12 Setback

The Titans (12-1) traveled to Reliant stadium in Houston to take on the red hot Texans (6-7). The Titans are looking to lock in home field advantage throughout the playoffs. If they win against the Texans and the Steelers lose to the Ravens, then this goal will be accomplished.

The opening offensive drives for each team ended in turnovers by the quarterbacks. The Titans began with Collins throwing an interception while the Texans QB Matt Schaub fumbled after getting sacked by veteran Jevon Kearse. The Titans got an easy field goal following this turnover because of the good field position.

The Texans answered back with almost a 9 minute drive. This drive ended in a field goal which tied the game. After the Titans had a 3 and out, the Texans had the biggest play of the game when Schaub connected on a 65 yard pass to Andre Johnson. Four plays later the Texans scored the only TD of the game on a 13 yard pass to Johnson.

The Texans held on to the lead for the rest of the game, but the Titans did score many field goals and narrowed the score to within 1 point. Jeff Fisher was faced with a decision to either go for the 4th and 3 or a 49 yard field goal with 2 minutes left in the game. Even though Bironas was a perfect 4/4 on field goals for the day, Fisher elected to try to pick up the first down. Collins throw to McCareins was too far and fell incomplete.

The Titans had all three timeouts left, but failed to stop the Texans from picking up the first down. The Texans ran out the clock and pulled off a big upset. The Texans finished with having 36:22 of the total time possession. Tennessee had the ball for 23:38 minutes of the game.

The Titans offense struggled against a sub-par Texans defense. They could not establish a game either on the ground or through the air. Collins was 15/33 in pass completions for only 181 yards. The Titans didn?t even reach 100 yards rushing on the ground on 23 carries. Texans players Matt Schaub and Andre Johnson deserve a lot of credit today. This is Schaub?s first game after sitting out due to a four week injury. He went 23/39 for 284 yards. Andre Johnson was responsible for 207 of these yards.

The Tennessee Titans have an extremely important game next week against the Pittsburgh Steelers. This is definitely going to be one of the best matchups of the year and may be a preview of what is to come in the playoffs. Next week?s game may also affect which of these teams will have home field advantage throughout the playoffs. The Titans have a lot of preparing to do

One Response to “Titans Suffer Letdown in Houston in 13-12 Setback”

Now we know why Houston ran this team out of town 11 years ago. They may have changed the name and their location, but they’re still the Oilers. Still get the fans’ hopes up and then choke late in the season.

You can take the Oilers out of Houston, but you’ll never take the Oilers out of the Titans.